Toyota Prius

Obama Coming To L.A., Still Wants Our Money Despite Election Win

Did President Obama not get the memo? The election is over. You don't need to tap L.A.'s rich people for campaign money anymore. You won. Wait, what? Ah: There are midterm congressional elections on the horizon. Democrats want to crack the alleged gridlock imposed by Republican filibusters. Friggin ... More >>

We Hang Out With Some Crazy Marines Drinking Their Asses Off at Coachella

Coachella can be brutal: Dry desert heat, sand storms, endurance tests. It's hard for folks to survive with their health intact. That is, unless you're in the Marine Corps. Jimmy English and Tidas Friday (not their real names) repair tanks and other military vehicles. They recently returned from a ... More >>

Beach Baby, Beach Baby, Give Me a Bag

Food Tank Launches: A New Think Tank on Food Systems

The brand-new Food Tank is not an irritating aquarium-themed seafood restaurant concept or a shoot-em-up flick set in a cafeteria. It's a think tank about food, though the matters the organization hopes to tackle won't be so mundane as the search for palatable application for the world's glut of tr ... More >>

Carmageddon II Could Clean Up 405 Air Pollution By Up to 83 Percent -- UCLA

See also: *Why Carmageddon II Could Be For Real; 10 Freeway Stretches in L.A. to Avoid. Having to be cooped up for this weekend's Carmageddon II is going to suck (L.A. leaders are encouraging you to keep shopping, so long as you stay away from the 405), especially since a fall heatwave is going to ... More >>

Same-Day Voter Registration is Here! ... Next Year (Maybe)

Someday you'll be able to vote simply by driving your Prius past the Whole Foods (your desires will be tallied automatically because we all know who you're going to vote for). Until then, Gov. Jerry Brown saves the day with same-day voter registration in California. Yay! Except that ...

Tony Scott Jumps to Death From Vincent Thomas Bridge

Updated at the bottom with a NEW report that Scott DID NOT have cancer. Top was rewritten to reflect our own confirmation of reports of Scott's death. First posted at 9:01 p.m. Sunday. Director Tony Scott jumped to his death from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro today, the L.A. County Coroner ... More >>

Manuel Figueras, Richard Alarcon Aide, Faces Manslaughter Charge

A field deputy for embattled city Councilman Richard Alarcon was charged today with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. Fifty-year-old Manuel Figueras was driving at 7:30 p.m. fatally struck a homeless man, 55-year-old Gary Woodford, on Vineland Avenue and Erwin Street in North Hollywood on March 1 ... More >>

Richest Cities in California Slum For Rides, Prefer The Prius

California has more billionaires than just about anywhere in the world except the United States itself, China and Russia. Really. So, if you were to survey a couple of the Golden State's wealthiest communities, what car make do you think would enjoy top rates of ownership? Maybach? Maybe Ferrari? A ... More >>

Comments: Blood in the Streets

Star Wars Light Saber Relay Heads From Santa Monica to Comic-Con San Diego This Summer

Legions of nerds will head to San Diego Comic-Con this summer not in their Scions, scooters or Priuses, as usual, but on-foot, with Star Wars lightsabers in hand. In probably the most physical activity geeks have ever embarked upon, the Course of the Force lightsaber relay will take these human cal ... More >>

VIDEO: Marriage Proposal at the LACMA Rock Employs Record Number of Terrible Rock Puns

So we know we said we'd never mention the $10 million, 340-ton LACMA rock ever again -- unless maybe it rolled off its "oversized load" truck and crushed a Prius -- but we at the Weekly have a strict policy on covering every L.A. marriage proposal ever caught on tape. And this one is special. Ramo ... More >>

Academy Awards Voters Are Extremely Old and White

Ah, Hollywood, home of the Prius-driving liberal, Kumbaya views of diversity, and the Obama fundraiser. You can't really get any further left and, as such, politically correct, than the industry of lights, camera, and action. But if you look at the true ethnic makeup of the film industry, you might ... More >>

Studio City Woman Says Neighbor's Energy-Efficient Windows Are Melting Her Prius

CBS LAThe dark side of green living.​Thank you, CBS LA, for getting to the bottom of this one. Never has the brave new world of eco-friendly consumerism reached a conundrum so ridiculous: Heather Patron, a resident of notoriously crunchy Studio City, tells the station that her Prius is melt ... More >>

Pasadena's Bistro 45 Celebrates Anniversary With Party You're Invited

Pasadena's Bistro 45 will celebrate its 22nd anniversary with a party on Monday, Jan. 23 starting at 6 p.m. (the restaurant is usually closed on Mondays). It kicks off at 6 with Gruet Sparkling Rose upon arrival. Tables will be set with seafood brandade, pork rillette, house mustard, baguettes and c ... More >>

Video: Police Officer in West Covina Fired For Making Comedy Clip?

Stop ... making crap videos.​A lame comedy video about a fake traffic stop has some wannabe Southern California cops in trouble this week. The Venice-based producer of the piece told the Weekly that one officer has been fired for his appearance in uniform in the clip, but the West Covina Polic ... More >>

5 Reasons Why Carmageddon Failed to Materialize on the Westside

Ted SoquiCarma-what-now?​So Carmageddon turned out to be a bust. No 100-year traffic jam. No car-to-car shootings. Not even a report of roadkill. In fact, unless you were under a Prius all weekend, you know that the 405 closure ended early -- at about noon Sunday -- instead of abutting the Mo ... More >>

Carmageddon Countdown: 405 Closure Gets Memed With 'Hitler Finds Out' Viral Video, Talking Bears, Sweet Tees

Even Hitler loves to hate L.A. traffic.​And the countdown to Carmageddon begins! There are many important repercussions of the 53-hour, 10-mile closure of the 405 we should discuss -- like how incredibly much it's going to suck, and how it's all a big waste anyway because carpool lanes don't ... More >>

Carmageddon Q&A: Will It Suck? Yes It Will.

MetroIsn't there an AIM bot for this?​It's the last day of June, with two weeks left to go until the worst freeway closure of all time: Ten miles of the 405, the busiest roadway in the U.S., will shut down for 53 hours. At this point, everybody's either freaking the F out or are so sick of hea ... More >>

Hybrid Carpool Lane Access Ending Friday in California: Yay!

​Ah, hybrid owners -- how we love to hate you. So smug behind the wheel of your fuel efficient dork-mobiles, switching four lanes just to get to the carpool zone where you'll pass us all by. No more. California's "Yellow Clean Air Vehicle Stickers" expire for good on Friday, so you'll have t ... More >>

VIDEO: White Rapper in Prius Complains About West L.A. 'Whole Foods Parking Lot'

YouTubeDavid Wittman, aka DJDave​Something about this video -- an endless loop around the Whole Foods parking lot, as nerdily narrated by white rapper "DJDave" from the driver's seat of his Prius -- seems oddly familiar. Oh yeah! That's because we've spent half our lives on an endless loop aro ... More >>

Summers Will be Deadly Hot as Global Warming Looms in The Next 60 Years, Stanford Researchers Say

The only upside to global warming.​We're in the midst of June gloom in Southern California, but you can be assured that Mother Nature will bring the heat. Maybe for decades to come. Stanford researchers say that unless we cut back on greenhouse gasses we will definitely see hotter and hotter ... More >>

Finders Keepers Records Revamps the Vampire Soundtrack

Green Electricity From Freeway Vibrations? L.A. State Assemblyman Mike Gatto Wants to Make it Happen

Mean and green? Magnum P.I.​Sorry Ed Begley Jr. and Al Gore (also junior). You're going be bummed when we pass your girly man Priuses in our 15-miles-per-gallon sports car, all the while smug knowing that we're green too. (We're going to design a piss-on-Priuses bumper sticker just to rub it i ... More >>

Sports Bar Report: Where Do Laker-Haters Drown Their Sorrows?

schudog3/flickrSonny McLean's​ Not every adopted Angeleno hops on the Laker bandwagon. Many of the guys with whom we play pick-up. The gruff, white-bearded bartender at the local pub. "I'm from Jersey, see," the bartender said on a Sunday afternoon, doling out free samples of a new Irish w ... More >>

Peace-Loving Smart Car Driver Targeted By Shooter In Downey

Does this car make you want to open fire?​Someone in Downey decided not to give peace a chance. The question is, was the shooting of an eco-conscious Smart Car on the 605 freeway this week an act of anti-environmentalist defiance, or simply the prank of a kid with a pellet gun? No one knows. ... More >>

(Video) DUI Suspect's Car Crashes Into Police Cruiser In Laguna Beach, Then Smashes Into Pole

Orange County RegisterPoor Prius.​It's customary in news stories, even casual, bloggy ones, to assume that one is innocent until proven guilty. It's a good way to go because a) it could be true and b) we could be sued. But here's one guy who's testing the limits of journalistic convention. E ... More >>

Hot Chicks Don't Get Tix? Mercedes Driven By Moms Top List Of Most-Ticketed Cars

imagevenue.comIf memory serves, this is Britney Spears famously stepping out of a Paris Hilton's Mercedes SL -- and into the Brazil-wax hall of fame.​Hot chicks don't get tix, right? Maybe. Jerks in douche-mobiles (the always-leased Audi A4, the self-important Mini or the self-righteous Prius) ... More >>

Top 10 'Green Cars' Announced: Which One Is Your Roadside Status Symbol?

Number one.​Remember when Escalades, Navigators and Hummers were all the rage? Dubs (20-inch-plus wheels), loud exhaust and bass music, right? Doesn't that seem like a million years ago? Today to be a true player in L.A., more modest hybrids are the status symbols to have. Kelly Blue Book on ... More >>

Toyota Blames Some Customers Who Report Sudden Acceleration

​In one of the more anticlimactic communiques from corporate America this week, Torrance-based Toyota Motor Sales USA announced that it has formed "SMART" teams to spin claims of sudden acceleration in its vehicles and blame the victims help local law enforcement uncover the causes of sudden a ... More >>

Figuring Out Toyota's Acceleration Problems IS Rocket Science

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.​As smug as Toyota has been in declaring recent allegations of sudden-acceleration in its cars unfounded, it's wild to see U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announcing Tuesday that none other than NASA will be helping federal officials find th ... More >>

After SoCal P.R. Victory, Toyota On Counteroffensive (But Still Secretive)

​We're hard-pressed to think of any other facet of life where a company that might have caused accidents worth possible millions in liability and lost sales is able to investigate itself. But that seems to be the case as Torrance-based Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. gets another crack at a runaway ... More >>

U.S. Rep. With Auto Industry Ties Blames Victim In Toyota Acceleration Case

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa.​The office of U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa expressed doubts over the weekend about a San Diego's man's report of a harrowing, out-of-control acceleration experience in his second-generation Toyota Prius, stating that tests attempting to recreate the ride proved that the vehic ... More >>

Toyota Says Nothing Wrong With Runaway Prius, Questions Driver's Story

​As expected, Toyota on Monday said its tests of an alleged runaway Prius showed that there is nothing wrong with the car. The company stated from its Torrance-based U.S. headquarters that "these findings suggest that there should be further examination of [driver James] Sikes' account." As w ... More >>

Requiem for a Rainy Day: 5 Songs for Excessive Precipitation

Requiem for a Rainy Day: 5 Songs for Excessive Precipitation

Petra Haden Sells Out

A singer lets her love flow in a quirky series of Toyota Prius commercials

Will Newest City Car Uproar Hit Green Wall Again?

If you've ever wondered about your neighbor's pickup truck having a city seal on its doors, you have only to turn to L.A. Controller Laura Chick's latest cry of outrage to learn of the expanding armada of city cars that are parked in employees' driveways. Chick's audit charges that "a total of 1,131 ... More >>

Addicted to Ormus: Gold Fever at the Raw Spirit Festival

Between the bee-pollen vendors and superfoods seminars, one light body gets her fill of monatomic gold

How We Roll

Derby Dolls: a bout last Saturday; babes in clubland; a dragalicious XXXmas

The Police: Arrested Development

Dodger Stadium, June 23

Sod Off!

Your yard — the last sustainable frontier

Who's Resurrecting the Electric Car?

Forget those poky little golf cars — the battery-powered muscle car is just around the corner

6 Highs and Lows of American Automobilia

6 Highs and Lows of American Automobilia

Hijacked by Hybrids

Who unplugged the electric car?

Driven

In Hollywood, your car is who you are

Babes in Hummerland

Give Us Liberty or At Least Give Us Dinner

Edited by Kateri Butler

Curb Your SUV

Laurie David put celebrity activism in the driver's seat

Forward Into the Past

California regulators jilt the electric car